Celebcity: That was 2013

Debut art shows, early pics of Kate Moss, Pride fun, Fatboy Slim in NYC, & back in time at Butlins

2013 was a star-studded year for Celeb City, so we felt it was only fair to share some of the sparkle by recapping our year in famous faces, extraordinary events and glamorous gossip for you Celeb City fans! From A-list through to Z-list we’ve made sure our ear has been to the ground to bring you the best news this town has to offer, and we promise to keep up the good work in 2014.

January started the year off with a bang, and saw us inadvertently landing ourselves in Tatler. Attending Keaton Henson’s debut art show in London we rubbed shoulders with the likes of Sir Derek Jacobi, James Lavelle, Sophie Thompson, Samantha Bond and our favourite – Downton Abbey’s very own Jim Carter (Mr Carson to us!). It was a good introduction into a year which would be filled with art events for us, and the celeb faces kept on coming.


We loved working on Darren Coffield’s ‘Paradox Portraits’ in March, which saw our favourite famous faces, from Harry Styles to Simon Cowell, turned upside down all in the name of art! Then, working alongside Brighton restaurant Moshimo, we helped big names strip off for the fantastic Fishlove campaign, raising awareness against destructive fishing practices in our seas. Joining the likes of Lizzy Jagger and Sir Ben Kingsley were French actress Mélanie Laurent, The Fall’s Gillian Anderson and garage godfather Goldie. In fact, seeing Goldie naked with a redfish had to be one of the highlights of our year. Keep up-to-date with Fishlove’s important work at www.fishlove.co.uk.

We saw even more (not literally) of Goldie working with him on his fantastic Lostribes show in Mayfair recently. Unsurprisingly the drum and bass star has more than his fair share of famous friends – and they all turned out to support him on opening night: Example and his wife Erin McNaught, Rio Ferdinand, Ian Brown, Plan B, Jason Flemyng, Krishnan Guru-Murthy, Sex Pistol Paul Cook and Meg Matthews all showed up to get their hands on a piece of the action (and brilliant artworks!). Perhaps even more excitingly, we worked alongside David Ross, the man responsible for the first EVER professional pictures of model and icon Kate Moss. This show, which opened the new Lawrence Alkin gallery in Soho, hit front pages across the UK and made quite a stir worldwide, showing the 14 year old soon-to-be-supermodel as a fresh-faced teen. The in-demand images are still available to purchase over at www.lawrencealkingallery.com.

2K13 also saw us travelling abroad in order to sniff out celebrity gossip. Over in New York we caught up with JBPR fave Fatboy Slim at an art opening in the Meatpacking District. Norm attended alongside rock royalty Courtney Love and it was great to see a friendly face across the pond. In September we popped over to Norway to their annual Nuart and Numusic festival and got our hands dirty with Jay-Z’s favourite street-artist Hush. We also witnessed music veterans The Orb team up with the fantastic Lee Scratch Perry to create a show that we’re unlikely to witness again; the combined stage age of the gig was a wonder in itself!

Back in the Brighton motherland we partied up a hell of a storm for this year’s fantastic Pride event in August. With some of the biggest names ever involved, 2013 was a stellar do. Paloma Faith, Alison Moyet, Stooshe and MKS all graced the main stage, getting the crowd moving in the beautiful sunshine. With such a great line-up and parade in 2013 we can only look forward to 2014 and cross our fingers for more exciting names, (Elton John, George Michael, Sinead O’Connor anyone..?)

Of course, we couldn’t have a year round up without mentioning our trip to Butlins (we’re huge fans) to see the one and only Pat Sharp! The DJ/presenter most famous for hosting – the now cult – children’s show Funhouse on CITV, was one of the acts performing at the Butlins Big Weekend in Bognor Regis, and our personal highlight. Pat invited the Celeb City girls along to see him play a ‘80s DJ, and we even ended up sharing a room with the Funhouse twins (only at JBPR)! As if this all wasn’t enough, Pat played alongside acts such as Doctor & The Medics and ‘80s duo Hue and Cry. We can’t wait for the Butlins Big Weekends next year – and you can join in the fun too at www.bigweekends.com!

So there you have it, our highlights of 2013. Looking into 2014 we cross our fingers for even more stars, juicier gossip and raucous parties. Either way, if anything goes down you can be sure we’ll be there to witness it, and relay it to you fine people of Brighton.
But for now, have a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Jo Brooks is director of Brighton-based PR company JBPR Ltd, 01273 622555, www.jb-pr.com
Send celebrity spots, gossip and pictures to job@jb-pr.com